Two oil workers from south Wales have told how British forces rescued them from Libya.

Marsden Sims, 63, a civil engineer from Tonyrefail, was among 218 British and foreign nationals taken to Malta on board HMS Cumberland on Monday.

He said looters had targeted his works compound at Messla.

Another man, Darren Symons, from Cardiff, was flown out by the SAS, and he described them as "absolutely exceptional".

Mr Symons, who was working in an oil field several hours from Tripoli, said: "We had a phone call Saturday morning at 10 o'clock to say just get your basic essentials and we'd be picked up at 11 o' clock, by whom we didn't know."

He said he and colleagues were taken to a desert camp where an RAF Hercules was waiting for them to board.

Mr Symons was one of 154 people flown out.

We didn't realise who they were, we just thought they were British forces of some sort, but as it came to light they were actual SASDarren Symons, Oil worker rescued from Libya

He added: "We didn't realise who they were, we just thought they were British forces of some sort, but as it came to light they were actual SAS, special forces."

Mr Symons said: "These guys are exceptional, absolutely exceptional - just made us feel at ease basically and flew us back to Malta and got us out of the danger."

Meanwhile, HMS Cumberland arrived in Malta on Monday.

On board was Marsden Sims, who said in a statement released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD): "I was about eight hours south of Benghazi working in the oil fields.

"We didn't have direct trouble to begin with but when word spread from the TV reports things got quite agitated.

"We were in one works compound at Messla and a few nights ago we saw looters outside taking vehicles and equipment."